The Law
Association of Zambia (LAZ) yesterday said Director of Public Prosecutions
(DPP) Chalwe Mchenga should have appealed against former president Frederick
Chiluba's acquittal because there are enough grounds for the appeal. In an
interview following Chiluba's acquittal on all corruption charges by the
magistrate's court and the subsequent withdrawal of the appeal by Mchenga, LAZ
president Stephen Lungu said Mchenga should have allowed the appeal to
proceed.

"That was a matter that the DPP should have appealed. The DPP
should have appealed that matter. We are very much aware that the Constitution
gives the DPP the right to determine the path of the matter, but this matter is
one matter of public interest. And going through [the judgment], he may have a
different opinion, but going through the judgment, we tend to believe that there
was quite good ground [for the appeal]," Lungu said. "What I am trying to say is
when one reads the judgment, one would then believe, looking at the evidence and
what was read, there could have been good grounds to appeals."

Asked on
the way forward on the matter especially that the stipulated two weeks in which
one can appeal against a judgment elapsed when Mchenga said he was studying the
matter, Lungu responded: "Particularly that's the same question that we would
ask. He did say that he would want to study the judgment; we know that he has
had a copy of the judgment for some time because, yes, he did indicate from what
we read that he needed to study the judgment before he could consider. But our
view is that if he has considered that, it will be nice if he came out and
explained."

Lungu said it would be good for Mchenga to allay people's
anxieties by explaining the way forward on the matter.

"But in our view,
looking at the judgment, it's a judgment that we feel he could have appealed,"
Lungu said.

Asked on what the people could do on the matter, Lungu
responded: "Well, you see the problem that we've got here is you have got powers
that are vested in one person and it is that person who must decide. The
Constitution gives him that power. That is where our apprehension is on this
particular [issue]."

Lungu said Mchenga derived his authority from the
Constitution, therefore he should make his determination based on what the
Constitution stipulated.

On Ndola High Court judge Munalula Lisimba's
decision to dismiss the petition in which Simeza Sangwa and Associates
petitioned the High Court to order Chief Justice Ernest Sakala and justice Peter
Chitengi to vacate their offices having reached the retirement age of 65 in line
with the Constitution, Lungu refused to comment on the matter, saying that would
be subjudice because the matter was subject to an appeal.